The lifestyle of a sherpa

As history testifies to the fact that certain countries and people follow a particular way of life different from the common way all over the world. The Sherpa people of Nepal for me personally have it all when it comes to good health and lifestyle. The Sherpa people are first and foremost known for their extraordinary physical vitality and strength. The Sherpa people hold many impressive Mount Everest records including most times summitted for men and women, to quickest ascent, quickest descent and also the most amount of time spent on top of Everest.

The Sherpas people live amongst the rugged heights of the Himalayas and have overtime become famous for their expeditions to Mount Everest. The most remarkable of them all was Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who accompanied the English mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary in the first ascent in history of Mount Everest.

He was quoted as saying “Potatoes are our main crops, and are the basis of the Sherpa diet, just as rice is for the Hindu and Chinese people. The varieties of potatoes which grow in the Himalayas are cultivated in lands found at a very high altitude (4,500 meters) which thus guarantees a supply of food in remote areas. Other basic foods in our diet are barley and wheat. We get our milk and cheese from flocks of sheep, goats and yaks with which they supplement their diet based on potatoes and cereals.

Meat is hardly used, and the Sherpas who are mostly Buddhists are total vegetarians. More information regardign the adventues of Tenzing Norgay can be found in his autobiography titled 'Tigers of the Snows'.

The Sherpa people show us that the secret of good living and longevity depends on the lifestyle we lead and the things we eat not the next 'FAD' diet we are on or the new Vitamin drink that will make our skin look amazing! The more we read about the Sherpa people the more I understand the very basic principles by what they live by. The secrets of good living involve the basic principles of physical exercise, an abundance of high quality and tasteful fruits, nuts and gains and most important of all the tranquil lifestyle and pure fresh air they breath in.